President Akufo-Addo will today Thursday, March 5, 2020, break the ground to signify the beginning of construction works on the National Cathedral.
The US$100 million edifice which is expected to be completed in four years is not only expected to signify a physical embodiment of unity, harmony and spirituality; but also boost Ghana’s tourism potentials.
In a television interview on Wednesday, the Secretary of Board of Trustees for the National Cathedral project, Rev Victor Kusi Boateng, said the structure will have a replica of the Garden of Gethsemane and the Wailing Wall in Israel.
He said the idea of the two significant places is to enable people who cannot afford to travel to those sights to have a feel of it in Ghana.
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“And so, we are placing a foundation stone at where the altar will be laid. And to make it very significant, we flew the foundation stone from Israel from the wailing wall. We brought it in here and we are laying it here. The reason is, as much as we are building this to the glory of God, we also want to give it an economic dimension," he said in the Accra based Joy News interview.
“Israel because we want the very presence they enjoy to be enjoyed here. Israel because we want the situation whereby somebody is in Nigeria he wants to go to Israel, he doesn’t have $2000 he has $300, he still can come here and experience the presence of God right in this place,†he explained.
“We are doing something that is very interesting. We are building a garden that is like the garden of Gethsemane that is going to have the Wailing Wall and all that right here on this land. And we are going to bring every fruit and vegetable in the Bible in our garden so that people can come and see what they’ve read of and been taught of in their Sunday school,†he added.
Aside from that, Rev Boateng said, “there will be a designed restaurant that will feed people that want to taste the fruits and the vegetables and the kind of food that there is in Israel.â€
“So there is a lot of interesting things that are going on here. A lot of people think that we are just building a church that people are coming to sing and pray. No, no, no…â€
Credit : Graphiconline
Supreme Court throws out injunction suit against National Cathedral
The Supreme Court has dismissed an injunction application seeking to halt ongoing works on the land earmarked to house the National Cathedral.
The application brought by a businessman, one Jonathan Holm, requested that the construction should be put on hold till the substantive case was heard.
Mr Holm had already sued the government over the National Cathedral project seeking a declaration that the land designated by the President for the construction of the Cathedral was compulsorily acquired solely for residential purposes for public officers.
According to the lawyer of the plaintiff, Bright Akwetey, this will prevent any cost to the state in the situation where the court rules in favour of his client.
But the apex court presided over by the Chief Justice Anin Yeboah, dismissed the application stating that provisions have been made by law to deal with such events.
Before this suit, a member of the Convention People’s Party’s (CPP), James Kwabena Bomfeh, unsuccessfully sued the government over the project, seeking the court’s intervention to halt the construction.